ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM THE WEST. 401 
differ from the eastern representatives of that bird in having a 
much shorter, thicker and less decurved bill. The Delaware gull, 
or its western representative, is a numerous summer resident, 
breeding on the islands insgreat numbers. At the time of our 
visit these birds spent much of their time on the sand bars of the 
Weber River, below Weber Cañon, and at certain hours of the 
day rose into the air to feast on the grasshoppers, on which they 
seemed at this time almost wholly to subsist. The stomachs of 
those we killed were not only filled with them, but some had 
stuffed themselves so full that the grasshoppers could be seen on 
opening their mouths. But what seems most singular is the fact 
that they capture them in the air (not by walking over the 
ground, as has been stated), sailing around in broad circles as 
though soaring merely for pleasure, seizing the flying grasshoppers 
with the same ease that a swallow exhibits in securing its prey of 
smaller insects while in rapid flight, but of course with far less 
gracefulness of motion. i 
Two other interesting birds found here are the double-crested 
cormorant and the white pelican, the former bearing the singular 
local name of “ black brant ° We saw. the cormorants only on 
Weber River, but, according to Stansbury, they breed on the 
islands with the gulls and pelicans. .The pelicans leave for the 
south towards the endof August or early in September. Although 
We saw no live ones, we found one on our first arrival that had 
been killed but a few days before by gunners. Concerning the 
abundance of this and other species of water-fowl on the islands 
during his survey of the Great Salt Lake, Captain Stansbury, Un- 
der date of’ Gunnison’s Island, May 8th, 1850, writes as follows :— 
res by immense flocks of pelicans and gulls, disturbed now 
a the first time, probably, by the intrusion of man. They liter- 
Hy darkened the air as they rose upon the wing, and, hovering 
‘cordant screams. The ground was thickly strewn with their 
nests m 
without motion. . . We collected as many eggs as we could 
- That of the gull is of the size of a ben’s egg, brown and 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. VI. 26 ' 
